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Greg Hairston
12-30-2004, 9:22 PM
I am considering taking the plunge and purchasing Sketch-up. What I would like to know is do you feel that sketch up can take you from concept/Design to a working drawing to build from. Or is there a need for a secondary CAD program to give you the typical 3 view working drawing plans.

Greg.

Jamie Buxton
12-30-2004, 10:53 PM
Greg --

For me, Sketchup is a drawing program -- a much improved alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It excels at easily making pictures which are easily understood by clients -- who generally can't visualize furniture from 3-view drawings. :o However, I don't make shop drawings with Sketchup. For that, I use DeltaCad, a $50 2-D CAD program. Sketchup, doing all that astonishing 3D magic, isn't as good at simple 2-D dimensioned shop drawings. It is like using a race car to mow your lawn. The race car can do difficult things that a lawn mower can't do, but the lawn mower does a better job at that simple task.

Jamie

Jim Becker
12-30-2004, 11:36 PM
For me, SketchUp! is quickly becoming a "one stop shop" as I really don't feel the need for extremely detailed three-views for most projects. When I do, I have DesignCAD at my disposal. But the more I use SketchUp!, the more I find I can do with it, too. I'm quickly learning how to draw with a lot more precision, too.

BTW, they just posted a bunch of free components and materials for download...I can't wait to see all the neat things in them!

Dave Richards
12-31-2004, 7:27 AM
Greg, I too am using SketchUp to create drawings I can work from in the shop. I used to prefer 2D drawings as working drawings. I can make those in SketchUp so I don't bother going to my CAD program after doing the design work. Most of the time though I just leave the drawings as perspective drawings.

With thoughtful use of groups, components and layers, it is possible to isolate parts or assemblies. You can also hide dimensions if needed to help clarify the part of your drawing you are interested in at the moment.

If you feel the need for a 3-view drawing, you can certainly make it with SketchUp but if you use a perspective drawing, you won't likely need a 3-view.

Todd Burch
12-31-2004, 9:43 AM
Greg, Sketchup is all I use, and all I have used for the last 14+ months, and all I plan on using. 2D has been the standard for drawings for many years, but working in 3D, and with a surface modeler like SU, you get so much more out of it, from a visualization perspective, than you ever could with a 2D CAD tool.

So, yes, it is all I need, and is all I am using, to do what you are proposing. Todd

Ted Shrader
12-31-2004, 10:47 AM
Greg -

SketchUp is all I use if I use a computer to assist in designing. I am still on Version 3.1. (I do have AutoCAD 2000 and TurboCad 8.1)

Sketchup is fairly "spendy", the learing curve initially is kind of steep, but once you master a couple of tricks, you are all set. I used it to design a bedroom set for some "clients" (daughter and son-in-law). They were able to approve the design and make a couple of minor modifications prior to construction. These are the <a href="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?postid=60763#poststop">before</a> (look for the post about half way down) and <a href="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=13447">after</a> pictures.

In the recent FWW Tools and Shops issue there was an article about setting up shop. There is a <a href="http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=13820">link</a> to some equipment drawings (in Sketchup 4.0) that you can downlaod. Might be handy to make modifications to your "retreat" out back.

Regards,
Ted